The Thirties

"Those who want a liberal woman in the White house are apt to remember her disconcerting inquiry in the midst of of much oratory on prosperity in 1924. 'I should like to ask,' she said, 'whether the devastated North-West is still a part of the United States.' It seemed then that Mrs. Roosevelt had that stipulated requirement for a woman chief... she could count the hungry and hear their cries afar off. To pay attention to the hungry, to wish to do something for them, to give public alms, recognizing the state's responsibility, that is, to be 'liberal'. To organize the hungry, to make demands is, of course, another type of political life. Once Mrs. Roosevelt in a witty speech accused Senator Wadsworth of having a 'Marie Antoinette type of mind,' and some of her cohorts, those who had read a little about the French Revolution, thought it was not quite the sort of thing she should even suggest."